Is Lab-Grown Meat Good for Us?

By Marta Zaraska

August 19, 2013

Conventional meat (the kind that grows inside animals, not petri dishes) is, in several ways, not exactly good for our health. Research shows that regularly indulging can lead to higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some kinds of cancer.

Professor Mark Post of the University of Maastricht, the scientist behind the first in-vitro burger, believes that test tube meat will be better for us. “We gain greater control over what the meat consists of, for example its fat content,” he says. “And the reduction in the number of farmed animals reduces the chance of zoonosis,“ or infectious diseases that spread from animals to people. So how exactly could meat grown in labs be better for our health than the meat that is grown in cows or pigs?

According to Joan Salge Blake, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, one of the key factors is saturated fat. “If they are going to make their own fats, they will be able to replace the saturated fatty acids with, for example, omega-3 fatty acids,” she said.